By Ed Edelson
HealthDay Reporter

Increasing consumption of sugary soft drinks contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of heart disease and 50,000 more life-years burdened with heart disease in the last decade, a new U.S. study finds.

“The finding suggests that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a dramatic health benefit,” said senior study author Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who was to present the finding during the upcoming American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference in San Francisco.

The study used a computer simulation of heart disease that has been applied to other cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity and dietary salt, Bibbins-Domingo explained. “We probably underestimated the incidence, because the rise is greatest among the young, and our model focuses on adults 35 and older,” she said.

One plausible explanation is that the increased incidence of cardiovascular problems is due to a rising incidence of diabetes, Bibbins-Domingo said, while an increase in obesity might also be responsible.

“Whatever the mechanism, large population studies do suggest an effect of drinking large lots of sweetened beverages,” she said. “No one argues that these drinks are not fine in moderation, but over the past decade their consumption has been on the rise, while consumption of other beverages has declined.”

A statement by Maureen Storey, senior vice president for science policy for the American Beverage Association, noted that the study had not yet been published in a scientific journal, and therefore had not undergone review by outside, qualified scientists.

“What we do know is that both heart disease and diabetes are complex conditions with no single cause and no single solution,” Storey said in the statement, which noted that consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is not listed as a risk factor by the American Heart Association. “Rather, we need to continue to educate Americans about the importance of balancing the calories from the foods and beverages we eat and drink with regular physical activity.”

But the study does suggest that any kind of policy that reduces consumption might have a health benefit, Bibbins-Domingo noted. One such policy is a proposed tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, she noted. “The reason why there is a current debate about a tax is that scientific evidence in populations has consistently shown that more than one drink a day increases your risk,” she said.

The American Heart Association recommends limiting consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks such as soda pop, while “alternative choices are available,” said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and a past president of the association.

“Juice from fruit itself is nutrient-rich, and its nutritional value goes beyond the carbohydrate content,” Eckel said.

The recommended daily sugar intake amounts to just one can of sugar-sweetened soda a day for a man and slightly less for women, he said.

For more information, the cardiovascular effects of dietary sugar are described by the American Heart Association.

Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/increasingsodaconsumptionfuelsriseindiabetesheartdisease

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People vow to change their ways, but often not for very long.

By Bill Briggs
msnbc.com
March. 1, 2010

The medical tests are back. The cruel news is delivered: the numbers show trouble inside your body.

Instantly, you rocket from mildly anxious to scared straight. That’s how it feels, anyway. In the exam room, in that raw moment, you firmly renounce your bad health habits. You promise to adopt a low-fat, gym-heavy routine. You’ll live right, you tell the doctor — and yourself. You’ll stick to it. You swear.

Save it. Your doctor has heard it before.

“I think every physician has,” said Dr. Steven Chang, a family practitioner at the University of California Davis Medical Center and a staff physician at RightHealth.com. He recalled diagnosing some patients with diabetes and collaborating with them on a new diet plan. “They will leave my office and I’ll immediately see them in the [hospital] cafeteria — eating a hamburger and French fries … That’s difficult.”

What’s the true shelf life of a health scare? That can depend on individual willpower, the height of the internal emergency and whether someone feels or sees physical symptoms — like chest pain or blood after coughing. Tangible signs of sickness may inject deeper fear and more lasting improvements compared to, say, merely reading ugly stats on a sheet of paper (such as a high cholesterol count).

A text message poll of 100 U.S. family physicians, conducted by Truth On Call for msnbc.com, found that 47 percent of doctors said patients typically stick to their vow to live better for just a matter of weeks after a health scare, 25 percent said the good behavior lasts several months and just 7 percent said patients stick to their resolve for a year or longer. Nineteen percent said the effect of a health scare lasts just a few days and 2 percent said it doesn’t last for even a day.

Chang said he pins the typical duration of fright-induced lifestyle adjustments at three to six months. “Once you start an exercise regimen, if it peters out after a few months and if you don’t feel any different, the impetus to change may not be [as strong] as that initial shock.”

As Lori Hope found, drastic change is tough to maintain no matter how powerful your motivation.

“How long can we go vegan and macrobiotic? How long can we sustain that?” asked the former medical journalist. 

In 2002, after Hope was diagnosed with lung cancer, she stepped up her exercise routine. She already ate an organic diet but also added meditation and yoga to the list of things she tried to boost her health.

“I continued after my treatment, but that went away fairly quickly,” she said, finding it her busy schedule made it impossible to do it all.

Hope, a blogger, public speaker and the author of “Help Me Live: 20 Things People with Cancer Want You to Know,” said she also became “wholly committed to avoiding anything that would exacerbate my condition.” Earlier, while researching a news documentary, she read about the theoretical links between cancer and electromagnetic fields (EMFs) — invisible areas of energy near power lines, wiring and appliances. Before undergoing surgery to remove the tumor in her chest, Hope noticed the close proximity between her desk and her office building’s bank of buzzing electrical meters. She borrowed a magnetometer, swiped it near the power boxes and saw high EMF readings.

“I walked to the opposite wall, got as far away as possible from the meters. It terrified me,” said Hope, now eight years healthy. “I ended up leaving that office partly because of that … And once I was diagnosed, it was like, there’s no way I’m getting a hair dryer near my head. I totally stopped using a hair dryer.”

How long did her anti-EMF conversion last? “Just a few weeks,” said Hope, 56. “Yes, I use a hair dryer now.” What changed? “I’m embarrassed to say that maybe vanity won out. [Plus] you do go back into a kind of sense of denial.”

Recording every heartbeat

Melanie Nayer, in contrast, can vividly describe her terror upon learning — at age 31 — that she had a heart rhythm disorder. While training for a marathon, Nayer noticed that her resting pulse was racing – sometimes staying above 180 beats per minute. After a month of exams, a doctor determined that she had supraventricular tachycardia, a disorder that causes the heart to beat faster than normal. Some tachycardias can raise the risk of stroke or cause cardiac arrest, while others may have no symptoms.

The diagnosis “scared the living crap out of me,” Nayer said. “I couldn’t understand why I had been dealt this card — I worked out regularly, ate well … I cried for a few hours, felt sorry for myself for a few days, yelled, screamed and probably broke a few things around the house.”

Along with taking pills to level her cardiac pace, Nayer began to “religiously” measure her heart rate and “recorded every beat in a journal.”

“This only made me more anxious and the anxiety only intensified the situation, and that was no way to live,” she said.

After four weeks, she put the journal away and grabbed a fresh attitude. “I stopped worrying about the little things, and the things that were out of my control. I stopped caring that my carpet hadn’t been vacuumed in over a week, or that there were dirty dishes in the sink. I would get to them. And a dirty dish wasn’t putting anyone’s life in danger.”

Always passionate about seeing the world, she became a travel writer, working from Boston. “My health scare turned out to be the best thing for me … Regardless of the severity of any diagnosis, you just never know when life will throw you a curveball. So I decided to start living the life I wanted to live,” Nayer said, “because, as morbid as it sounds, I wasn’t sure when it would end.”

Three years later, Nayer has been cleared for annual cardiologist visits (instead of twice per year) and is on a lower dose of medication. Just eight months after her diagnosis, she also began running again.

But for people who vow to start running and who stop, for those who abandon burgers and fries only to return to a fast-food lifestyle a few months after a bad health episode, the reasons for relapse can include a lack of self discipline and a tendency to “self sabotage,” said Debbie Mandel, who hosts a stress-management radio program, “Turn On Your Inner Light” on AM1240 WGBB in Long Island, N.Y.

Past mistakes also are hard to admit. And “to change, even for the better, makes a statement that one was wrong,” Mandel said. Moreover, life changes made amid a health catastrophe are often a drastic, desperate response to a crisis. “When the crisis is over, so is the motivation. For change to take hold, it is best to start small to reap giant gains. This way one can inventory and tweak along the way. All or nothing is hard to maintain.”

A little help from friends

Upholding healthier habits can require a little handholding, too. Chang noticed that many patients who successfully stuck with leaner diets and longer walks for at least a year were able to rely on friends and family members to accompany them down their new paths. For patients with diagnoses, such as diabetes, that require radical changes in diet and exercise, Chang makes it a point to call his patients one week after he gives them the news — or he asks them to return to his office three weeks later — to “check in” on their improvements and to vocally cheer them on.

Tapping a social support network is precisely how Ellen Snortland shed 50 pounds and kept the weight off, and how she transformed herself from a heart patient into a self-defense teacher in Altadena, Calif. In 2003, after a lifetime of yo-yo dieting — including taking the diet drug Fen-Phen — Snortland was diagnosed with a heart valve problem.

“I asked [my doctor], ‘So what are my alternatives?’ They said, ‘Surgery or, in some cases, if you lost a major amount of weight, it could make a difference.’ I said, ‘Holy moly!’ — although I may have used another word. I walked out of there like I’d been given a death sentence,” Snortland recalled.

She soon entered a 12-step program aimed at weight loss. She began speaking daily to a sponsor, submitting a daily food plan, and attending three meetings a week with her group. “It’s the only way I can see I’ve been successful,” she said, “because we are bombarded with food ads.”

At 56, Snortland described her heart’s current condition as “perfect” and said she feels “completely and utterly vigorous.”

The shelf life of her health scare? She can name it in four words: “Evergreen, perpetual, long-lasting, enduring.”

© 2010 MSNBC.com

Original URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35584798/ns/health-behavior/from/ET/

When you’re dragging from all that multi-tasking, here are proven strategies to fight off fatigue.

By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD FeatureReviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

It’s 3 p.m., and you’re definitely dragging. Your body feels like a car that’s run out of gas. And while your official workday may soon be over, your day probably isn’t.

If you’re like most women, your to do list probably still includes some or all of the following tasks: pick up the kids, cook dinner, get in a workout, supervise homework, tend to aging parents, walk and feed the dog, feed the cat, catch up on bills, and take care of housework.

Whew. Reading the list alone can make you feel exhausted.

But here’s a solution - our six proven fatigue-fighting strategies. Some of these strategies offer an instant energy boost - just in time to shine for the 4 o’clock meeting. Other strategies are longer-term remedies. They require a bit more patience, but they’ll pay off big-time in the long run. Once you’ve mastered these energy-boosting strategies, any one of them can make you feel like you’ve just had a tune-up.

Energy Boost #1: Reach for energy food

You may be thinking “candy bar!” but a sugar boost will just leave you lagging again in an hour. For a nearly instant energy boost that lasts, eat a healthy snack containing protein and a complex carbohydrate, says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, MPH, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and a weight control researcher at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

One place to find complex carbs is in whole grain bread products. “Try a whole grain cracker with low-fat cheese,” Gerbstadt says. “Or a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread.”

The secret? “That combination of protein and a complex carbohydrate (digested more slowly than simple carbs) increases your blood glucose in a sustained way,” she says. “It boosts energy longer than if you eat gum drops, for instance.”

Energy Boost #2: Eat a high-carb, high-fiber breakfast

For short-term and long-term energy boosts, make a habit of eating a high-fiber, carbohydrate-rich breakfast, says Jaimie Davis, PhD, RD, research associate at the Institute for Prevention Research at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

As proof it works, Davis points to a study that compared the effects of two carbohydrate-rich breakfasts - one high-fiber, one low-fiber - with two high-fat breakfasts. The high-fiber, high-carb meal was associated with the highest level of alertness between breakfast and lunch. The study was published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.

To boost the fiber and carbs in your first meal of the day, select such foods as whole wheat toast or high-fiber cereal. A half cup of high-fiber cereal can contain as much as 14 grams of fiber, and some high-fiber breads have 6 grams per slice. Aim for 25 to 30 grams of total fiber daily, Davis says, noting that most Americans get perhaps 10 to 15 grams.

Energy Boost #3: Take breaks

Multi-tasking is viewed as the way to get a lot done quickly. But taking a short break and doing absolutely nothing for a few minutes can help you overcome fatigue and actually get more done in the course of a day, says Jon Gordon, a Florida-based consultant who advises corporations and athletes on how to stay energized. One short break of 5 or 10 minutes or even less can boost your energy immediately, and making break time a habit can keep your energy up long-term, he says.

“If you take short breaks throughout the day, you will have more overall accomplishments,” says Gordon, author of The Energy Bus.

Human performance studies show he’s right. In one conducted at Louisiana State University and published in Computers and Industrial Engineering, researchers compared three different work-rest schedules for workers who used the computer. The schedule that allowed for briefer, more frequent breaks was best in terms of fighting fatigue and increasing productivity.

The researchers found that workers who took four breaks per hour, usually just 30 seconds each, followed by a 14-minute break after two hours of sitting at the computer, reported higher performance and worked faster and more accurately than their coworkers.

Energy Boost #4: Get moving

For an instant energy boost, drop out of your busy life for 10 minutes and hit the road - or the hallways of your office. “Walking is an energizer,” says Gordon. Even a 10-minute walk can help you overcome feelings of fatigue.

And yes, it works better than a sugar infusion. In a study published two decades ago but still often-quoted, Robert Thayer, PhD, a professor at California State University, Long Beach, compared the energizing effects on 12 different days when 18 subjects either ate a candy bar or walked briskly for 10 minutes. Walking was the better bet. Walking increased energy for two hours. The sugar snack initially boosted energy, but after an hour, participants were more tired and had less energy.

Energy Boost #5: Take 5 and Meditate

Numerous studies have demonstrated the fatigue-fighting effects of meditation, but there’s no need to light candles, sit cross-legged, or learn a mantra. Mini-meditation can work wonders, says Judith Orloff, MD, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California Los Angeles and author of Positive Energy.

“A three-minute meditation is a way to calm yourself down and stop rushing,” she says. “You can replenish yourself. You can take control of your energy.”

Orloff suggests getting the day off to a positive start with a mini-meditation while you’re still in bed, then continuing with short meditation breaks throughout the day. Any quiet place in your home or office will do, Orloff says. You can even use the office bathroom for an instant energy boost.

“Close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths,” Orloff says. “Begin to relax your body. When thoughts come, think of them like clouds in the sky. Let them float by. Visualize a positive thing - a sunset, the beach in Hawaii.”

Energy Boost #6: Ditch the Energy Vampires

To increase the amount of energy in your life long-term, experts suggest surrounding yourself with positive people whenever possible. Of course, you can’t always avoid some negative people, like a moody boss or that complaining grocery clerk who always seems to be the one who checks you out.

But negative people can do more than bring down your mood, says Orloff. Some people can make you feel so stressed in their presence that they cause a stress reaction in your body. Orloff terms them “energy vampires.” And stress is the biggest energy drain of all. “Stress like that burns out the adrenals,” Orloff says, “and when the adrenals are burned out you have no energy.”

Not sure if someone’s negative enough to affect your energy levels? Analyze how you feel in their presence, Orloff says. If, after a few minutes together, you feel like you want to take a nap, or if your energy suddenly bottoms out, that’s a telling sign. If someone really makes you tense, you may even find yourself feeling nauseous or dizzy or notice a headache coming on. “Emotions are catching,” she says.

Original URL: http://women.webmd.com/features/fatigue-fighters-six-quick-ways-boost-energy?ecd=wnl_can_030210

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